We’ve spent a lot of time this summer talking about the Miami HEAT and the L.A. Lakers and the Oklahoma City Thunder as the best teams in the NBA, and it’s true; those teams are far and away the best in the league. No one is going to be surprised if one of those three ends up winning the 2013 NBA Championship.

But will they be worse than the Bobcats? And where will Detroit and Sacramento and Phoenix end up in all this? With real lottery prizes like Nerlens Noel, Cody Zeller, and Shabazz Muhammad likely to declare for next year’s draft, these are questions worth asking.

Now consider that when the two-time All-Star returned from nearly four months out with a torn pectoral muscle last May in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, Horford had to battle the behemoths in the post without having all of his strength back in his upper body.

Sources say that Ray Allen is most likely to take James’ spot in the starting lineup at small forward, leaving the team going into more of a small-ball strategy to start out the contest. James has so far played in four preseason games and has done very solid.